Electronic displays have previously been used predominantly in indoor entertainment applications such as home theatres and bars/restaurants. However, as the performance characteristics and popularity have grown, electronic displays are now being used in many new environments for both entertainment as well as informational and advertising purposes. Displays are now used in airports, shopping malls, sides of buildings, arenas/stadiums, menu boards, and as advertising signs and/or billboards. Exemplary displays are also used for both indoor and outdoor environments.
Over many hours of use, even the most reliable electronic displays are known to degrade in performance or possibly have one or more components fail prematurely. When a display is used for advertising purposes, a sudden failure or degradation in performance can result in the loss of critical advertising exposure and possible revenue to the advertising firm. Further, when a display is used for information, a failure of the display may result in the loss of critical information such as flight schedules or emergency alerts. Also, in some applications a display is required to maintain a certain level of performance (ex. gamma, contrast, luminance, color saturation, etc.). A user may want to monitor the various parameters of the display to determine when the display may begin to degrade in performance.
When displays are used for advertising purposes, it may be desirable to include the capability to monitor the performance of the displays. More specifically, it may be desirable to confirm that the advertisement was successfully shown on the display. Collecting and storing the confirmation data may be useful to advertisers which desire the specific times, frequency, and location data for their advertisements. It may also be desirable to ensure that the video/images being sent to a display cannot be tampered with or to ensure that undesirable content cannot be shown on a display.